Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-01-07
VOYAGE TO OUR ARCTIC LAND.
OF for Alaska-Among the Islands of a
Northesn ses-Scenes OF Weird Beauty.


Northesn Sea-Scenes of Weird Beauty.
This is slow and easy sailing-a sort of
jog-trot over the smoothest possible sea,
with the paddles audibly working every
foot of the way. We run down among
the San Juan islands, where the passages
are so narrow and so intricate they make
kind of watery monogram among the
fir-lined shores. A dense smoke still OBJ
scures the sun-a rich haze that softens
the distance and lends picturesqueness
that Is perhaps not wholly natural to the
locality, though the San Juan islands are
unquestionably beautiful. The Gulf of
Georgia, the Straits of Fuca and Queen
Charlotte sound are the words upon the
lips OF everybody. Shades of my school
boy days! How much sweeter they taste
here than in the old geography class. Be
fore us wilderness of wild islands,
mostly uninhabited, stretches even into
the sunless winter and the shadowless
summer of Behring sea.
There are delightful people on board
many of them-and not few others; but
bear in mind there are bevies of girls-all
young, all pretty, and all, or nearly all,
bubbling over with hearty and wholesome
laughter. Now, inasmuch as every thing
is new to us, we can easily content our
selves for hours by lounging in the easy
chairs and looking off upon the placid sea
and at the perennial verdure that springs
out of it and mantles lovely but lonely
land.
Only think of it for moment. Here
on the northwest coast there are islands
sown so thickly that many of the sea pass
ages, though deep enough for a three
decker to swim in are so narrow that one
might easily skim his hat across them.
There are thousands of these islands.
yea, tens of Thousands don't know just
how many, and perhaps no man does.
They are all shapes and sizes, and the ma
jority of them are handsomely wooded.
The somber green of the woods, stretching
between the somber blue-green of the
water and the opaline sheen of the sky,
forms picture-a momentary picture
the chief features of which change almost
as suddenly and quite as completely as
the transformations in a Kaleidoscope.
We are forever turning corners, and no
sooner are we safely around one corner
than three others elbow us just ahead ;
now, toward which of the three are we
bound, and will our ship run to larboard
or starboard This is a turn one might
bet on all day lOng-and lose nearly every
time.
What bewildering cruise! Vastly
finer than river sailing is this Alaskan ex-
petition. Here is whole tangle of rivers
full of strange tides, mysterious currents
and sweet surprises. Moreover, we can
get lost if we want to-no one can get lost
in river. We can rush in where pilots
fear to tread, strike sunken rocks, toss
among dismal eddies or plunge into whirl-
pools. We can rake overhanging boughs
with our yardarms if we want to, but we
don't want to. In 1875 the United States
steamer Saranac went down in Seymour
,narrows and her fate was sudden death.
The United States steamer Suwanee met
with like misfortune at the entrance to
Queen Charlotte sound. 1t is rather jolly
to think of these things, and to realize
that we are in more or less danger, though
the shores are as silent as the grave, the
sea sleeps like mill pond, and the sun
sets with a great dignity and precision
nightly bathing the lonely north in sensu-
Gus splendor. Warren Stoddard
Aboard an Alaska Steamer.